My First Secret

From all of my dieting experience, I have determined that there are a few crucial things you need to do if you are attempting to lose weight, no matter what "diet" you decide to try. Here they are...

1- Drink water. A lot of it. All the time. Have something you can refill and do it constantly. Find out what temperature water you like, and if you prefer it with lemon, whatever, and then get to it.

2- Eat. A lot. All the time. You've probably heard that eating many small meals throughout the day is the way to go. It keeps your metabolism working. NOT eating may help you lose weight in the short term, but ultimately will end up ruining your metabolism and your life. Eating 3 big meals and then nothing in between makes your metabolism spike, you want it to be steady.

3- Be prepared. You need to have food (healthy food) on standby and ready to go. Loads of food. That way, when you get hungry, you have something on hand. One of the worst things you can do is let yourself get hungry and then start looking around. Bad, bad things will start to look SO good to you, and you'll just grab at whatever you can get your hands on. Don't let that happen. If you're going to eat constantly, as you should, you need to have the food ready to eat. You don't want to get home from work, starving, and just make a pop-tart because it's easy and you can't wait. Which leads me to my next point...

4- Remove temptation. There will inevitably be days when the thought of anything involving lettuce makes you want to cry and you just want to EAT SOMETHING BAD. There are ways around this. But if you're, say, hungover or desperate, you're going to start scavenging through your cabinets for something naughty. The key to beating these, as I mentioned, inevitable cravings is to not have anything bad in your kitchen. You can't grab a pop-tart if you don't have one. You will need to have something to appease yourself, so make it something reasonable. Leading me to...

5- Treat Yo'self. Look, if you're trying to eat well for an extended period of time, you're going to need cheat days/treats/comfort food etc. You can't live life without something delicious every once in awhile. (At least I can't.) My old fall back was semi-sweet chocolate chips. When I was craving chocolate, I would grab a handful. I still like this fall back... could be a lot worse. BUT I will now share with you a recent discvoery... my first secret. Skinny Cow Ice Cream! GOSH I love this stuff. I had tried Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, and they're delicious, so Steve and I decided to try the ice cream. Yum. I am partial to the Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Steve likes the Strawberry Cheesecake (it seriously tastes like a piece of cheesecake smothered in strawberries, not kidding). Best part is, there are only 150 calories in a cup, and I usually don't even need a whole serving! Most of the time I just want something sweet after dinner, and a few bites will sustain me. (Not just now though, about 5 minutes ago I ate an entire cup, prompting this post.) Usually low-fat or healthy desserts taste like cardboard, but I promise this stuff is legit. Give it a try if you want to treat yourself :)

That is all for now. Can you tell it's January 1st and I'm trying to keep a resolution? Happy New Year.